Going To Long Valley

In fall 1915, Bryan eagerly starts his first year at Long Valley School. Will Duff, a former student of Pa’s, is the new teacher. Fourth grader Don “Cotton” Walker takes Bryan as his seatmate. Bryan loves learning—his desk work, the older classes reciting at the front of the room, and older kids teaching recess games. Winter brings cold-weather games, chores, and a tragedy to Bryan and the community. Spring follows, with the births of farm animals and an all-boys’ Easter dinner in the woods. With the warmer weather, Pa takes Oley, Herschel, and Bryan to a general store; homesteaders travel through the area, and a surveyor appears and disappears. Realizing the goal of the winter’s trapping season, Oley and Herschel buy a new wagon for the boys with their fur-trading money. At the end of school, the boys take their first ride in a car.Bigger changes follow in Bryan’s family as older siblings leave home, and Oley and Herschel take over for Pa’s farm help. Bryan begins his second year at Long Valley, not a moment too soon for his desire to learn still more.